After a decade of helping sellers list items on eBay, power seller software maker Auctiva is launching its own marketplace. Or, more accurately, it's launching a platform, named AMP, where anyone can create a marketplace. Auctiva and its partners have 500,000 products ready to be included in any store via its API (our new AMP API profile).

"AMP allows developers to create whatever it is that excites them for the e-commerce world. By releasing AMP we hope to open a new range of possibilities and kick-start innovation in the e-commerce space."

With the company's experience writing software on top of eBay's platform (our eBay API profile), Auctiva is well-positioned to pull this off. It knows the elements necessary for a thriving ecosystem. This is apparent in its read/write API, which includes options to add new merchants and products to the platform.

Auctiva also released Elefy, an example site built on AMP. Elefy showcases the many products and sellers available using Auctiva's platform. Additional example sites are planned for more niche products, using only a small subset of the potential products.

AMP is well-timed for Auctiva's current customers, those who list many items on eBay. These "PowerSellers" may be looking for a change after recent eBay changes, with potentially increased fees and changes to the format of its "Stores."

Shopping APIs have long been popular on Programmable Web. In October we listed 82. In that short time, even more have cropped up. AMP becomes the 92nd shopping API added to the site.

About the author:Adam DuVander
-- Adam heads developer relations at Orchestrate, a database-as-a-service company. He's spent many years analyzing APIs and developer tools. Previously he worked at SendGrid, edited ProgrammableWeb and wrote for Wired and Webmonkey. Adam is also the author of mapping API cookbook Map Scripting 101.